Dude....Are You Stalking Me +[Gerard Way]+ Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own MCR or anyone/thing affiliated with them. I do own this story though. And that feels pretty fine.
Chapter 16
"I hate her."
Rita tried to stifle a laugh, if for no other reason than to save herself the discomfort of squirting hot coffee through her nose. While she managed to do naught more than snort- which was embarrassing enough in itself- and nearly coked as she swallowed, Breanna glared into her own cup.
"Bre," Rita gasped. "You can't hate someone you barely know! I don't think it's even possible."
"Well I hate her, that stupid bitch." Bre maintained, face screwed into an adorable scowl. Knowing she would get nothing more from her young friend, Rita turned to Ray who sat at the other side of Breanna in hopes of finding some form of rational response.
"Mundo, would you help me out here?"
Ray swigged his beer and shrugged. They were in his apartment, waiting for Frank to get back from the video store with their movies. It was Valentine's Day and though they all had plans for later that night, the group had decided to spend the day together watching horror movies and eating junk. A heated game of rock, paper, scissors had concluded the debate on whom would be chosen to retrieve their cinematic delights, Frank's poor choice of scissors branding him the defeated. As an act of revenge he was making them suffer by taking a long. Ass. Time.
"Ieeeeee'm with Bre." Rita stared at him, scandalized and Ray laughed at her ridiculous expression. "Look, she sucks! I mean, come on. Like you're gonna tell me you're best friends?"
Rita closed her mouth and with an air of deep dignity, turned her face toward the far wall and scratched her neck delicately with one finger.
"Shut up," she mumbled. She ignored her friends' snickers.
"I can't believe Gerard's going out with that stupid bitch," Bre lamented, eyes narrowed. "I can't stand being around her!"
"She's not that bad," Mikey reasoned as he exited the kitchen, six-pack of Budweiser in-hand. "Think of it this way; next time one of us has something stuck in our teeth, she'll make the perfect toothpick."
They dissolved into helpless laughter that lasted several minutes. When she was calm enough Rita shrugged and adjusted her position so that her legs were draped over Mikey's lap.
"Well the sink's been giving me some trouble, lately." she mused and idly twirled a lock of her boyfriend's hair. "We could always use one of those stick-legs to jimmy the drain."
A fresh peal of laughter accompanied this comment.
"Yeah, and we'll never have to worry about mice." Ray supplied as he popped the top on a fresh can of beer. "She screeches so much, it sounds like there's an eagle passing through every few minutes."
"And have you seen the way she dresses?" Rita exclaimed between giggles. "It looks like the 80's threw up on her!"
"Speaking of throwing up," Bre commented, semi-serious. "Has anyone noticed that she disappears every time we eat somewhere?"
Rita shook her head.
"Braces."
"So that's why she tripped the alarm at Tower," Mikey commented, which prompted them to fall all over each other laughing, all over again. Mikey offered the girl who sat half in his lap a can of the cold alcoholic substance, which she declined. She leaned over, kissed him long and sweet and ignored Ray and Bre's cat-calls.
"Her hair though, is something special." Bre laughed and leaned back against Ray's chest.
"I know, right? I mean, I'm no expert," Rita agreed, swirling her coffee thoughtfully. "But I'm pretty sure that when you bleach your hair, you're supposed to bleach the roots, too."
"Someone should really tell that guy he's dating a circus clown." Ray and Mikey toasted to Bre's observation, but the group's laughter staggered to an abrupt halt when the doorway was darkened by a leather-clad figure.
"Someone should tell who what?" Gerard asked, smiling and the blond parasite attached to his arm eyed them with disdain. There was a distinctive sound of the collective wind going out of their sails. Looked like the fun was over.
"'Lito, I'll have that beer after all." Rita mumbled and a cold can was slapped in her hand before she'd finished speaking.
Frank appeared behind the pair and slunk past them guiltily. He held the bag containing the movies in one hand, and a shopping bag bursting with junk food in the other. As he entered the room and set both bags on the coffee table, the short man avoided any and all eye contact as best he could. Still he forced himself to hazard a quick glance at the group and visibly shrank under his friends' collective withering glare. He glanced around at them and shrugged almost unperceptively.
"Any beer left?" Gerard queried as he shrugged out of his jacket to reveal a black t-shirt with a small picture of a devil on the chest. Beneath the caricature were the words "god's busy, can i help you?" Trina had also shed her old army-print jacket and was sporting a tight black-and-white striped shirt reminiscent of the old Tim Burton movie, Beetlegeuse. Her jeans were acid-wash and at least one size too small, riddled with bleach stains, rips and tears. She pinned the group with a look of contemptuous disinterest but the moment her eyes fell on Rita, it changed to a glare of malicious loathing. Rita for her part raised her beer in toast and fixed the girl with a smile laced with mocking, threat and ill-concealed challenge.
"There's another case in the kitchen." Mikey supplied and the blond followed its host through the doorway, mercifully out of sight.
"Frank." Bre reprimanded and he flopped down in the armchair adjacent the love seat and sighed.
"I know, alright?! But I ran into Gee at the video place and invited him over. I didn't know she would be with him." There was a collective sigh/groan and Frank propped his feet up on the coffee table. "Man, that girl is--"
"Actually, I kinda feel sorry for her." Rita cut in almost thoughtfully. She received shocked and horrified stares from all around but continued. "I mean, has anyone else noticed? She's only dressing the way she does cuz she thinks Gerard likes it. I'd bet good money that if she was going out with Frank, she'd look completely different."
"Yeah, she'd look like a cute brunette who could dress herself."
Rita sent a good-natured glare at her friend.
"Hypothetical situation, Frankie." He rolled his eyes.
"More like highly pathetic."
There was a collective snicker, which Rita chose to ignore.
"It's sad, if you stop to think about it. She has very little to no self esteem, no concept of self-worth at all. She just constantly changes herself to suit her boyfriends." Her eyes suddenly lit up as an analogy came to her. "She's like that parasite," That seemed to catch their attention, so she continued. "You know, kinda like Venom in Spiderman. When Venom first attached himself to Spiderman -or was it Peter Parker? I forget sometimes- his powers were a little different. Only a little, but even a slight difference is a difference. I mean he was temperamental, but Spidey wasn't nearly as violent as Venom, cuz he was the hero.
But when Venom attached himself to Eddy Brock, it was kinda like he had his own body. He completely took control, cuz Eddy wasn't the best dude out there. He was just fucked up enough that Venom felt at home. He made Eddy faster, stronger, blah blah and Venom lived off of him with no threat of rejection, not like with Peter." Rita glanced around to see the understanding in her friends' eyes and moved on to her conclusion. "She attaches herself to a guy and caters to his personality, changes herself to suit his needs. By the time she's finished her transformation, they've both got what they want; her a boyfriend, him the kind of girl he was looking for." She turned her attention to the kitchen doorway at the sound of kernels popping in the microwave, the sound like a machine gun going off in a closed room. "But like with any symbiotic relationship, the match has to be just-so. Hopefully for us, that means she won't be around much longer."
"I didn't know you were into comic books," Mikey murmured, impressed. Rita winked at the boy and shrugged.
"I only know a little bit about select series," she admitted. "And I only use it as a basis for random psychological evaluations."
Bre looked back and forth between the two, utterly lost.
"Well as long as you're not using it for evil." They laughed quietly together while Frank looked on, jealous. He sighed loudly and rummaged through one of the overflowing shopping bags at his feet.
"Who wants Funions?"
***
I know I do...how about you? ;D
Gerard finished pouring the Pop Secret into a bowl and shoved a fresh six-pack under his arm. When he and Trina walked back into the livingroom they were greeted by the sight of Frank chucking Funions at Rita's face, not that it was such a strange thing in itself. The real surprise was that she was laughing and trying to catch them with her teeth.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" Frank sneered jokingly and picked up the pace a little. "Bre had at least twenty more than you by now!"
"Shut up!" Rita retorted lamely and ended up catching three at once, but she was laughing too hard to notice. Her laughter escalated to the point where she actually started to choke and Ray had to pound her on the back before handing her a beer to get the greasy obstructions down. Unfortunately, Rita was still laughing when she started drinking the beer and it ended up shooting out of her nose to the amusement of everyone present.
"Oh my god, that is like so wrong!"
... well, almost everyone.
Rita wiped fruitlessly at the mess her face had become and winked at the disgusted girl. Trina responded with a sneer, and Rita had to restrain herself from kissing the girl purely out of spite. Beer still ran down her chin and from both nostrils and with a sudden streak of vicious humor, the girl decided not to deny herself. Quick as a shot she darted forward and trapped the blond in a loose embrace with one arm encircling her skeletal waist and kissed her full on the mouth. All laughter in the room ceased at that moment and Rita took dark delight in carefully leaking chunky beer rife with half-chewed bits of Funion all over the girl's face and into her mouth. After twenty long seconds she pulled back, eyes dancing with mischief.
"No," Rita breathed and a small, evil smirk lit her wet face. "That was wrong."
A shocked silence permeated the room and for a long moment, nobody moved. Then Trina's eyes overflowed with unbridled horror and disgust, she gagged and stumbled backward out of Rita's grasp. Her hands flew to her mouth and she shot quick glances around the room, only to find mixed amusement and disbelief on the faces of Rita's friends. She would find no help there. Finally her gaze found Gerard and she looked to him as if expecting him to turn back the hands of time, to unmake what had just happened. Unfortunately his eyes were blank, his handsome face a mask of shock. Finally with a look of desperate panic she gagged again and ran for the door, barely managing to snag her jacket on the way out.
For a few agonizing seconds everyone was still. Then they seemed to all animate at once, almost like a painting suddenly come to life. Everyone turned to Rita as she stood, face still dripping, in the center of the room.
"Holy fuck," Frank laughed and clapped the taller girl on the back jovially. "You really fuckin did it... she really fuckin did it!"
She seemed decidedly unmoved by Frank's fervent praise, Ray's laughter or Mikey and Gerard's apparent shock. With as much hauteur as she could muster, Rita stepped past the small mess of junk food and beer cans at her feet and daintily lowered herself onto the couch beside a quietly impressed Bre. With a small smirk but no comment, Breanna handed Rita a Kleenex. She took it, wiped her face with slow, deliberate swipes of the tissue and looked to Gerard.
The usually irrepressible mister Way was staring at his friend with a particularly peculiar expression. He seemed unable to decide whether to be angry, amused, disappointed or all of the above. Finally he settled on a non-committal head shake. Rita grinned deviously at the man and he leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"You are one sick kid, sugar."
Rita ignored the tingle that ran down her spine at the sensation of his warm breath brushing against her ear and turned to return the favor. She took mischievous delight in pressing her lips against the shell of his ear ever-so-slightly.
"Believe me, darlin. You have no idea."
Gerard settled on the couch beside Rita and casually draped an arm around her shoulders. Bre nudged the older girl none-too-subtly and Rita, for her part chose to ignore it. When Bre leaned in to Rita's side and started making kissey-face noises, it took a bit more effort.
"I know we said 'shitty horror movies,'" Frank said as he popped a DVD into the player under the TV. "But this is a classic. You can't say no to a classic."
The FBI Warning came and went and the movie started to play. Everyone crammed themselves onto the couch and easy chairs and settled in as the first screams of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre rang out.
Rita glanced shortly around the room, and a distinct feeling of content settled around her shoulders like a warm blanket. For that moment, all was once again right with the world.
Outside the window on Valentine's Day 1999, snow began to fall.
***
I gave Bre and Mundo one last hug as we all got ready to go our separate ways. Frank had already run off to whatever date he'd made for the night- probably at some cheap hotel- and I frowned at the thought. Dating these random girls, and none for much longer than a week, at best was childish and an obvious sign of fear of commitment. He was selling himself short; he really was a great guy and deserved better than random couplings between dirty sheets that ended almost as quickly as they began. I sighed. Be that as it may, he was my friend and I knew better than to meddle.
I kissed 'Lito goodbye as he ran down to warm up the car while Gerard got his things together. They had made their own plans, something about a tradition that couldn't be ignored and I was meeting Jay at his apartment for a full night of video games and greasy food. I'd never been one for greeting card holidays anyway, and since Jay's girlfriend seemed to be out of town- he might have said something about Puerto Rico- he was my first choice to fritter away the evening with.
Bre tipped a wink as Gerard closed the door behind him and he regarded it with a raised brow for a long second.
"That girl's not right in the brain," he muttered absently and I couldn't help but laugh. He seemed to finally notice me about then and smiled sheepishly.
"She's crazy, but in a good way." I winked just as Bre had and reached into my bag. "Kinda like me." I handed him the small box of chocolates I'd made the night before and kissed him quickly on the side of the mouth. I'd been aiming for his cheek, but somehow I always seemed to miss. Imagine that.
Gerard looked surprised, probably because he didn't know what was in the box. But he was always easy to surprise, I noticed. I gave him a big hug and a smile.
"Happy Valentine's Day, stalker man."
He didn't have much of a chance to reply; I ran down the stairs and out to my car before he could say a word. It wasn't so much that I was shy or anything stupid like that. I mean, that shit was never a problem with me. Completely to the contrary, I felt guilty. Even if I didn't believe in Valentine's day- and I still don't- the whole giving chocolates thing is supposed to be reserved for the person youre seeing. It wasn't a big deal or anything, I had given 'Lito his chocolates before he left; a store-bought heart bigger than his head. But the ones I'd given Gerard were homemade and, as we all know, it's the thought that counts.
I pulled out into the sparse Sunday evening traffic and sighed. I didn't know what the hell I was thinking; making candy for my boyfriend's brother, then spending what was supposed to be the most romantic day of the year with another man altogether.
Things were so much simpler when I was antisocial.
***
Lovely snow, drama,etc. What more could you ask for?
I watched Rita run down the stairs and when she was out of sight, turned my attention to the package she'd given me. It was wrapped in what looked like homemade wrapping paper and tied with a black ribbon. I untied it and the paper came free easily. I unfolded it to find, of all things, a sketch done in red and black pencil. It was a girl holding a human heart pierced by a black arrow. She looked like an angel at first, but there were a pair of horns holding up her halo and her smile was razor-edged.
I smiled. It wasn't Rita's usual style, looked like I was rubbing off on her. Inside the box were chocolates, homemade fudge hearts each with a cocktail toothpick through it in place of an arrow. I couldn't help but laugh; she pulled out all the stops.
I looked again to the staircase and the smile dropped. It was fuckin hopeless. I reached into my pocket and felt the box there, the one I'd been planning to give Rita before she ran off. I could've stopped her, if I wanted. But it wasn't right. Mikey was my brother, and he was Rita's boyfriend now. There was nothing I could do. I had no fuckin business giving my brother's girlfriend jewelry on Valentine's day.
I headed down to the car where Mikey was waiting and stopped to look up at the sky. It was covered by thick clouds, not a star in sight and small snowflakes were falling. The wind was pretty high and it kept blowing my hair into my eyes, so I used the ribbon from the chocolates to tie it back. It was a silk ribbon. It smelled like her.
I lit a cigarette and hesitated before getting in the car and looked again at the sky. Even if I couldn't see the stars, they were there and made me think of her eyes just the same.
Happy Valentine's day, m&m, I thought and got in the car.
***
Rita laughed until she thought she might pass out from lack of air and pounded her friend's back heartily. Jason smiled and poured more Pepsi into her glass. It was getting late into the evening, past nine oclock already but neither of the old friends were willing to call it a night yet. They were playing, of all things, the Ren and Stimpy video game on the old Sega Genesis Rita had gotten as a Christmas gift when she was twelve. They were up to the stage in the mouth, breaking teeth and fighting the giant tongue while recounting memories neither had thought of in what seemed like decades.
"Okay Gigi," Jay said as he leaned forward and turned the Sega off. "If I play any longer, my brain's gonna dry up and fall outta my nose."
Rita raised an eyebrow and reached for her glass. "But that would mean you actually have a brain." She grinned at his mock outrage and stretched her arms over her head. She was wearing a black wife beater with a smiley-face with devil horns and fangs on the front. It was form-fitting, but casual and Jason couldn't believe she'd only worn a leather jacket and scarf over the thing. The shirt just reached the waistband of her jeans when she was sitting, but it pulled up a good few inches as she arched her back against the couch and the man had to make a conscious effort not to stare. "Man, I do not want to go to work tomorrow. School I can stand, but work?" She closed her eyes and slid down the couch until her legs were splayed out before her. "Work is the devil."
Jason took the opportunity to really look at his friend, the girl he'd last seen when she was a nine year old tomboy and saw just how much she'd changed. While before she'd been a short, somewhat rangy monkey child with a close-cropped thatch of curls who would rather fight than do almost anything else in the world, she was now a graceful- though still short- young woman. She was much more even-tempered and infinitely more feminine, gifted with generous curves and long, silken hair. Jason's eyes passed eagerly over her frame and he raised appreciative obsidian brows. She definitely couldn't be mistaken for a boy now, that was for sure.
Rita sighed as Jason grabbed a piece of guayava and held it to her lips. Her eyes opened in surprise but she smiled and opened her mouth to accept the treat. The sticky sweet was offered slowly and the girl's berry colored lips closed around it savoringly. She chewed languorously and licked her lips with slow, appreciative movements. Abruptly she realized that her friend had half of the candy still between his fingers and opened her mouth expectantly. Jason smiled wickedly and raised it to his own lips as Rita's eyes widened in outrage.
"Hey!" she protested and sat up. "That's my dulce! Get your own!" She moved forward to reclaim it just in time to see it placed on her friend's tongue. She squawked indignantly and punched Jason's shoulder, an adorable scowl on her face. He grinned.
"Okay," he muttered around the sweet obstruction already melting on his tongue. "I'll share." Before she could resist Jason pinned Rita to the couch and moved to drool melted guayava all over her face and shoulders. She cursed at him, trying to sound angry but was laughing too hard to be convincing. After several long minutes she managed to push him off of her and used his shirt to wipe the stickiness from her body.
"You're such an asshole, Jay," she sighed and shook her hair out, but she was smiling.
While passing a damp paper towel over the still-sticky tracks on her skin, Jason walked up behind Rita and wrapped his arms around her waist. She rolled her eyes and turned, only to be met by his lips. Her eyes grew wide and she froze, shocked as her friend's lips caressed her own. As much as she wanted to push him away, she couldn't seem to move.

The Grace




Finally, after what seemed like eons Jason pulled away and rested his forehead against Rita's. She didn't meet his eyes.
"Stay here tonight." His voice was husky, silken with dark promise. Rita's eyes clenched shut and she pushed him away.
"I can't." She rubbed her arms as if cold, but stopped when the ace bandage she'd wrapped around her left forearm pulled slightly. Uncomfortable, she walked back into the livingroom and paced restlessly.
There were several long moments of silence as Jason leaned against the sink and Rita stood with her back to him, looking out the window.
"It's that white boy, isn't it?" came the soft accusation; there was no malice in it.
Rita flinched as though he'd screamed in accusatory fury and dropped her head guiltily.
"His name is Migue--" She managed to catch herself and sighed. "His name is Mikey." She smiled sadly as she caught her reflection in the window. "And he's my boyfriend."
"Mikey," Jason sighed softly and pushed away from the sink. "Funny, he's not the one I was talking about." Rita frowned and turned to look at him curiously. "The other one, his name is Gerard, right?"
A shock went through Rita at this and she gaped openly. She spluttered incoherently for a moment before finally managing to regain her bearings.
"What the fuck are you talking about? I'm with 'Lito, not Gerard."
Jason shook his head slowly and looked her straight in the eye.
"I haven't hung out with all your friends a lot Gigi, but I've seen the way you look at him when you're together. You like him." Her mouth worked, but no sound came. "In fact, it's more than that, isn't it?" His eyes bored into hers and just as when they were young, Rita could almost feel his gaze cut straight to her core. She looked away.
"Gerard and I are friends, Jay. Nothing more. Don't make it something it's not." Her gaze hardened as her mind suddenly seized upon an important fact that had been completely ignored. "And it doesn't matter either way, does it? You have a girlfriend, Jay! What the fuck are you thinking?!" Jason stared steadily at his friend and suddenly it dawned on her. "You don't have a girlfriend, do you."
The man sighed, as he seemed to be doing a lot tonight and walked to within feet of his friend. His gaze was candid and unrepentant.
"I broke up with her a couple weeks ago." Rita backed away from him, shaking her head in something not completely unlike disgust. "But she is in PR, I didn't lie about that. Gigi," He held his hands out imploringly, his expression pained. "Just, don't look at me like that, okay? Stay. We'll just talk." Rita knew he was telling the truth, but for the moment didn't care.
She gathered her things, slipped on her jacket and turned to say goodbye to her friend. Jason sighed heavily and walked her to the door.
"Gigi, I've known you for a long-ass time. Even if I haven't been around for a while, I know you." She said nothing to this. He sighed again. "You won't admit it to yourself, maybe cuz you're with that Mikey dude, maybe cuz you're just not ready to. Whatever. But you have feelings for Gerard, Margie. And you're gonna have to face it sooner or later."
Rita studied her shoes for a long moment before looking up at her friend, at the unnaturally solemn lines of his face and sighed softly. She leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek.
"'Night, Jay."
With the door closed behind her, the apartment seemed suddenly very empty and Jason sighed disconsolately as he threw himself on the couch.
Rita's eyes were troubled as she drove slowly back to her parents' apartment under the falling snow. She stopped at a red light, her eyes shadowed as she watched the soft white blanket thicken minutely and wondered sadly just when her life had become so complicated.
Jason lay back, eyes on the ceiling and reached for a pillow. His hand closed around something soft but unfamiliar, and his eyes widened slightly when they fell upon Rita's forgotten scarf. With a sadly wistful expression he draped the scarf over his face and breathed deeply. With Rita's scent thick in his nostrils, he could almost imagine she was lying beside him, her fragrant hair spread across his shoulder.
In New York City on February 14, 1999 the snow continued to fall.
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I hope you enjoyed, kidlets.
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